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Good for you for trying. Derbies are fun and I encourage more people to try them.

It's funny that some say that "marks can't be that hard, after all there is a guy in a white coat standing near it." Many times it's the guy in the white coat that is close that prevents the dog from ever seeing the guy in the white coat that is far.

John Lash

"If you run Field Trials, you learn to swallow your disappointment quickly."

"Field trials are not a game for good dogs. They're for great dogs with great training." E. Graham

My unique experience with a flyer. It was a AKC ht, senior level with Hudson. It was a double, flyer was go bird. Watched memory bird down, then flyer was shot. Sent Hudson. He gets about 3/4 the way to the shot flyer. He makes an abrupt turn to the gun station and is circling aroung the gun station like crazy.

I'm in a blind panic. He comes back with the bird. I send for memory bird and he returns with it. The judges and I am in the dark as to what went on. They thought maybe an extra duck had got out of the crate.

One of the judges walks out to the gun station to find out what went on.

The gunners explained: they only barely cripped the duck. They were afraid to sluice it as the dog was in the field. The duck ran back to the gun station and was trying to get back in the crate, I guess.

Now you know. Make your own flier station in training and practice looking past it to a much less obvious gun station at a big distance. It would be good to get the dog in the habit of looking past multiple short guns and to a long gun in training. It's the little things like that that add up quick.

This is the progression of how it has work for me. Go to a test or trial, find out what you need to work on.(more to the affect of getting your a*s handed to me) Can't get upset, learn from it and go back home and try your best to train the way you trial. Evently you will be prepared for what ever they throw at you.

I entered a young dog in a junor a few years ago, he does a nice job on the flyer. I too lined for memory bird, I thought we had it. He breaks down,heads back to flyes station. He ran to the bird crate and started barking at the ducks in the crate, I had to walk out to get him, he was not going to leave that bird crate.

Good for you for running. Look at any field trial call backs posted on the events page and many many very good dogs don't make it past the 1st series. It won't be the last time but of course train as if your going to win each weekend.
Have Hubby stand a short station holding live duck hen by the feet. (not going to shoot it, you can keep it alive for months if you want). You concentrate on getting dog to watch a long mark, throw and retrieve it. All the while hubby is moving arm and duck up & down getting duck to flap its wings and hopefully quack up a storm (reason to use a hen). Dats dat.
The least of your worries is which side dogs was on. While helpful if you train for it, it didn't matter much I'm afraid.

Some things to think about:
1. As dog is returning, blow whistle to break dog focus on flier.
2. As dog heels in, emphasize where you want dog to sit. Do not let dog look at flyer
3. If dog focuses on flyer, and you cannot break attention, put out hand in direction of flyer. Say "here."
4. If that doesn't work, heel to flyer station. Put hand out. Say "no."
5. Re-heel dog. Hand out. "Here". If you get change, take your time
6. Pray

Good for you Jen. I am really glad you went. This is good advice Ted is giving. Thanks Ted

Jen, it's the whole package. The flyer station... The excitement... The fresh shot duck... The trucks... The gallery... The judges... The marshal yelling the numbers... The chairs... The mat... The holding blinds... All of it was a whole new experience. You are not the first and won't be the last to say "she never did that before"!

Live shot flyers at a trial are WAY more exciting to a dog than duck hunting... They feel the pressure. In hunting the pressure is off for the most part.

You did better than my first derby attempt. My dog nearly caught the bird as it bounced on the ground! I was too dumbfounded to yell sit when he took off because "he had never done that before"!!